DC-3 (C-47) bow tie in deep blue

The next time you get on a flight from New York to LA, you can thank the DC-3. In the 1930s and 1940s, its range and speed made transcontinental and intercontinental flight possible. As World War II ramped up, Douglas reconfigured the DC-3 into the C-47 Skytrain, a military transport plane which would go on to define the civil aviation sphere after the war. A true classic.